From Genesis 6-9, we see the judgment of God in the flood and the grace of God in the rescue of Noah and his family. How fascinating, given the theme of the devil’s attempt to throw God’s plan off track at every turn, that. God just keeps the plan moving. Humanity sinned in such a great way that they all should have been wiped from the face of the earth. God had one man, and only one family, who he preserved to preserve his promise. And even then, in chapter 9, we see that Noah had his own feet of clay. Yet, even in that that awkward family moment, God still preserved the line of promise. No matter what had happened, God’s plan to rescue his people by sending the descendant of the woman to crush the serpent is still moving forward. And, we know from Noah’s weakness that the best man alive during the days of the flood is not a good enough man to pull off this rescue.
In Psalm 3, we see David wrestling against the wicked who oppose him. David is part of that line of promise we have been considering all along. If David is taken out, the promise fails. But God preserves David just as he prayed. However, it is also interesting that , like Noah, David is a sinful man and thus not the promised rescuer. David is running from the wicked, but the wicked is David’s own son who opposes him as a direct result of David’s own sin as God made clear in 2 Samuel 11-12.
Interestingly, in Matthew 4:1-11, we see Satan’s attempt to derail God’s plan by tempting Christ to sin. Satan threw more and greater temptation toward Jesus than Noah faced. Yet Jesus, unlike any other person in the line of the promised one, withstood the greatest temptation that the devil had to offer. Something about Jesus is markedly different than those who have come before him. He is living a perfectly sinless life, the only kind of life that could purchase our pardon and clothe us in the righteousness necessary to enter the presence of God.
Lord Jesus, you made it clear that man is to worship God and serve him only. Yet, you, Jesus, received the worship of Thomas after your resurrection. I thank you, that you are both God and Savior, the perfect one who defeated temptation and lived out the perfection that I could never have lived. If David and Noah are not righteous enough to live sinlessly, how much further away am I? I need you and your mercy. Thank you for doing what I could never do. I worship you and again declare my desire to follow you with all that I am and all that I have.
Pastor Travis Peterson 